Collapsible ironing table



June 9, 193%. c. A. RICH ET AL J 3 I COLLAPSIBLE IRON'ING TABLE Filed Dec, 4, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet l flhesfer A. Him I Uesse Hie/m mdsm June 193%. c A c ET AL i ih COLLAPSIBLE} IRONING TABLE Filed Dec. 4, 1935 2 Shegts-Sheet 2 31we/wtow I [Mater A .im

Patented June 9, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COLLAPSIBLE IRON-LNG TABLE Ohio Application December 4, 1933, Serial No. 700,802

7 Claims. (01. 68-.10)

This invention relates to a collapsible ironin table, an object of the invention being to reduce to. a minimum the cost of. manufacturing such devices while at the same time rendering them 5 very sturdy, durable, and easy to manipulate.

Other objects of the invention are; to provide a simplified construction with. the use of inexpensive stockw material, such as standard strap metal; to provide: for automatic collapsing or folding of the. brace structure. close against the under side of the board element; and to provide a rear trestle or leg structure which reduces its width automatically when the device is collapsed, with little or no assistance from the front leg or brace assembly.

The foregoing and other objects are attained by the means described herein. and disclosed. in the accompanying. drawings, in which.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view ofthe collapsible ironing table of the. invention.

Fig.2. is aplan view of a. cross-member or brace employed in. the device. of the invention,. and which forms. part of a. leg spreading assembly.

Fig. 3 isa rear elevational view of the rear leg or trestle structure detached. from the ironing; boar-d. r

Fig. 4 is a fragmentall side elevational. view, of a modified form of rear leg. or. trestle structure.

The board or table member 6 has a frontier forward. end. 1 and. a rear end 8'. Upon theunder side of the board, adjacent to the rear end, is provided. a suitable meansfor pivotally sup.- "porting. the rear legs 9. and I; Said meansimay be in the. form. of opposedperforated brackets or lugs l2 which depend substantially vertically from the under side. of. the. board. Any suitable means such. as screws, rivets, or the like |I3I may be employed to'holdthe brackets or lugsin place. The legs 9 and. Ill are pivotally mounteduponthe lugs. I2 as at M. A

The inner face of. each leg. may be tapered or beveled as indicated at l (Fig. 3.), so that when the legsare. extended or. projected away from. the board ,tothe operative position of Fig. l, the lower ends of the: legs may readily be spaced apart. at agreater distance than when the legs are folded: against the board. I

A forward or front leg l6, which if? desired may be constituted of the two shafts'or elements I l and ['8 has? pivotal mounting means at 19 upon the underside of the board; When. the front or third leg i6 is made in two parts, as' illustrated in Fig. l", the shaft members I"! and I8 preferably are joined at their lower or free ends by means. of one or more rivets, screws or other fastening devices 20.

Each of the members l1 and i8 is pivoted at l'9 upon the bracket members 2|, the latter being suitably secured tothe under side of the board by means of rivets, screws, or other fastening devices 22. The upper ends of members I1 and I8 are cut at such an angle, as indicatedat 23; that when the members are moved to the extended position the face 23 may abut the under face of the board, 6. The contact of said angle faces 23' upon the under face of the board substantially limits the extent to. which the front leg may move toward the rear legs 9 and Ill. While. there is some slight flexibility or resiliency in the members I! and I8, it is to be understood that substantially the indicated limitation of movement is controlled by the abutment at 23.

The lower or. free ends of the front leg members have pivotally attached to them theforward end of a substantially V-shaped connector or tensionelement 24 having the pair of arms 25 and 26., The apex. or base part 25 is suitably pivoted upon the leg "5.

At the rearends of the rods 25 and 26 suitable abutment. means or heads 21 and 28 are provided. Said. heads are adapted to, abut, respectively,,.the sleeves 29 and .30 through which the rods extend- The rods are slidable in the sleeves, and thesleeves are pivotally mounted relative to the rear legs as at 3| and 32. .The pivotal mountings indicated at 3| and 32 may alternatfvely be carried by the bracesor struts 33 and 34, as is. evident from the drawings. From the foregoing it. will be understood that the rods 2'5 and 26' function. to maintain a. predetermined spacing of the rear legs from the front leg when force is applied tothe upper face of the board 6.

The. braces. or struts 33 and 3.4 have their lower ends pivoted upon the rear legs 9 and 10, respectively, at points intermediate the upper and lower extremities of the legs; and preferably, though not necessarily, the pivots 3| and 32 may be. employed for this purpose, as shown. The front or upper ends of the struts preferably are associated with a suitable operating member 35,. or equivalent means, for forcing the struts to the operative position of Fig. 1 wherein the rods 25 and 2.6. are tensioned. orsubstantiall'y' tensioned between the legs l6, 9 and I9. Although other forms of operating members may readily be subplication filed June 26, 1933, and bearing Serial Number 677,633.

The struts will be seen to form part of a toggle structure, due to the fact that their front or upper ends are pivoted upon a member such as 35 which is adapted to be moved past center when actuated. As shown, the upper ends 36 of the struts are connected by a transverse or base portion 39 of the U-shaped operating member 35. The operating member comprises also the arms or links 31 and 38, and these as well as the struts are included in the toggle structure.

The free ends of the arms 31 and 38 are turned outwardly as indicated at 40 and 4|, and the said ends are received in pockets or bearings 42 and 43, respectively, provided by suitable brackets 44 and 45 mounted in spaced relation upon the under side of the board 6. The pockets or bearings are elongated in the direction of the length of board 6, thereby permitting some longitudinal movement of the member 35 relative to the board 6. Each of the arms 3'! and 38 is provided with an offset or abutment 46, the purpose of which will be explained presently.

The base portion 39 of operating member 35 is pivotally mounted upon the struts 33 and 34, as previously stated, and a suitable hand piece 41 which is disposed intermediate the struts, retains the forward ends of the struts in opposed relationship.

Associated with the operating member 35 is a second U-shaped member 48 which has eyes 49 formed at the ends of its arms 50 and 5|, and the arms are slidably received in the eyes 49. The base or transverse portion 52 of member 48 is pivoted to the board by means of the brackets 53. The eyes 49 are adapted to engage the abutments 46 at and shortly before the time that the toggle device comprising the struts 3334 and member 35 attain the positions that they assume in the fully extended or operative position of Fig. l. The various elements of the assembly at the front end of the board are so related and proportioned that a snap action over dead center of the member 35 results when the ironing table is set up for use, to maintain the leg structure in a substantial and rigid condition. The reader is referred to the copending application of Rich and Richardson, previously referred to, for a more detailed explanation of the operation of the toggle structure.

Attention now is directed to the means for spreading the legs 9 and I0 laterally when the device is set up, and for bringing the legs toward each other when the device is collapsed so as to dispose the legs. substantially within the body lines of the board 6. Said means comprises a pair of cross braces or spreaders 54 and 55, the lower ends of which are pivoted, respectively, upon the rear faces of the legs 9 and ID, as at 56 and 51, (Fig. 3). The braces are crossed, as shown, and the upper ends 58 and 59 are twisted and turned so as to lie substantially in planes perpendicular to the board. Each of the turned upper ends of the braces is perforated to receive rivets or the like 69 whereby said ends are pivoted upon pivot-carrying links or supports GI and 62. The pivot-carrying links or members BI and 62 are slidably received in sleeves or guides 63 and 64, respectively, and the latter are pivotally mounted for rotation upon the legs as at 65 and 66. The opposite ends of members 6| and 62 may be pivoted upon the front leg members as at 6! and 68, as in Fig. 1, or if desired, they may each be pivoted upon a stationary part of the device, as

indicated at 69, of the Fig. 4 modification. The members 6| and 62 preferably are disposed in substantial parallelism with the board, as indicated by Figs. 3 and 4.

The effect of the cross brace and link construction above described, is to render the rear leg spreading action practically independent of the front leg strut and tension assembly. In other words, the spreading action of the rear legs when manually moved toward and from the board, 1 would be accomplished even in the absence of the struts 3334, the rods 2526, and the leg IS. The spreading action results from the slight shifting of pivots toward the pivots 565'| when the legs are moved to the extended position, and, 1 conversely, the legs move toward each other when the pivots 60 are shifted upwardly or toward the rear leg pivots, upon folding of the legs toward the board. The shifting action of pivots 60 occurs in the Fig. 4 modification also, as is 2 evident.

It is to be observed that all the metal parts of the device may be formed easily and inexpensively of stock strap material that may be cold pressed and shaped by means of simple press op- 2 erations, thereby reducing the cost of manufacture to a minimum. Moreover, assembly costs are reduced by providing rear leg spreading mean: operating independently of the other elements, since such construction obviates much of the la- 3 bor that would otherwise be required for co-ordinating the movements of the rear legs with those of such other elements.

What is claimed is:

1. A folding table structure comprising in com- 3 bination a top board rear legs pivoted to the board for movement toward and from the board to and from an extended operative position and a collapsed inoperative position, a cross brace having its lower end pivoted upon one of the rear legs 40 at a point remote from the board, a link guide mounted upon the other leg adjacent to the pivotal mounting of the leg upon the board, a link supported by the guide, said link having opposite ends, a connection between one end of the link and the upper end of the cross brace, and means for mounting the other end of the link upon a stationary part of the table.

2. A folding table structure comprising in combination a top board, rear legs pivoted to said 59 board for movement toward and from the board to and from an extended operative position and a collapsed inoperative position, a cross brace having opposite ends, the lower end being pivoted upon one of the rear legs at a point remote from 55 of the cross brace, a depending member on the board remote from the rear legs, and means for mounting the opposite end of the link upon the depending member.

3. A folding table structure comprising in combination a top board, rear legs pivoted to said board for movement toward and from the board to and from an extended operative position and a collapsed inoperative position, a cross brace having opposite ends, the lower end being pivoted upon one of the rear legs at a point remote from the board, a link guide having a pivotal mounting upon the other leg adjacent to the pivotal mounting of the leg upon the board, the pivotal mounting of the link guide being substantially parallel with that of the leg, a link slidably supported by the guide in substantial parallelism with the board, with opposite ends of the link disposed at opposite sides of the guide, a pivotal mounting between one end of the link and the upper end of the cross brace, a front leg m0vably mounted upon the board remote from the rear legs, and means for mounting the opposite end of the link upon the front leg.

4. A folding table structure comprising in combination a top board, rear legs pivoted to said board for movement toward and from the board to and from an extended operative position and a collapsed inoperative position, a cross brace having opposite ends, the lower end being pivoted upon one of the rear legs at a point remote from the board, a link guide mounted upon the other leg adjacent to the pivotal mounting of the leg upon the board, a link slidably supported by the guide, with opposite ends of the link disposed at opposite sides of the guide, a pivotal mounting between one end of the link and the. upper end of the cross brace, a pivot supporting means depending from the board remote from the rear legs, and means for mounting the opposite end of the link upon the pivot supporting means.

5. A folding table structure comprising in. combination a top board, rear legs pivoted near the rear of said board for movement toward and from the board to and from an extended operative position and a collapsed inoperative position, a front leg structure pivoted upon the board \forwardly of the rear leg pivots for movement toward and from the front end of the board, means for limiting movement of the front leg structure l away from the front end of the board to an extended operative position, means for maintaining the front leg structure and the rear legs in extended operative position, a cross brace having opposite ends, the lower end thereof being mounted upon one of the rear legs at a point remote from the board, a link shiftable relatively to the other rear leg, a pivot on one end of the link and shiftable therewith, a connection between the shiftable pivot and the upper end of the cross brace, and meansfor shifting the link and the pivot carried thereby when the legs are moved to the inoperative position.

6. A folding table structure comprising in combination a top board having a front and a rear end, rear legs pivoted to said board near the rear end thereof and front legs pivoted to said board forwardly of and remote from the rear legs, for movement toward and from an extended operative position and a collapsed inoperative position, the rear legs each having a rear face, a cross brace having one end pivoted upon one rear leg in the plane of the rear face thereof, at a location remote from the board, a pivot means on the other end of the cross brace adjacent to the pivotal mounting of the other rear leg, and means comprising a link operated by a front leg to shift the said pivot means on said other end of the cross brace, thereby increasing the angle between the rear legs when said legs are extended.

7. A folding table structure comprising in combination a top board, rear legs pivoted to thr board for movement toward and from the board to and from an extended operative position and a collapsed inoperative position, front legs pivoted to said' board forwardly of the rear legs, a cross brace having its lower end pivoted upon one of the rear legs at a point remote from the board, a link guide mounted upon the other leg adjacent to the pivotal mounting of the leg upon the board, a. link supported by the guide, said link having opposite ends, a connection between one end of the link and the other end of the cross brace, and means for mounting the other end of the link upon the front leg.

CHESTER A. RICH. JESSE W. RICHARDSON. 

